De Blasio defends phone call to NYPD about jailed supporter
Updated Feb 13, 2014 ; Posted Feb 13, 2014
By Jillian Jorgensen | jorgensen@siadvance.com
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Mayor Bill de Blasio, seen earlier this week delivering his State of the City address.
(Associated Press)
CITY HALL - It wasn't just snow - Mayor Bill de Blasio also spent time Thursday defending his phone call regarding a campaign supporter who was arrested earlier this week.
"I think it's appropriate to make an inquiry," de Blasio said, seemingly over and over, with inquiry being a word he used 13 times in discussing the phone call.
Bishop Orlando Findlayter, the pastor of New Hope Christian Fellowship in Brooklyn, was arrested Monday night during a traffic stop due to outstanding arrest warrants springing from civil disobedience at an immigration protest, the Wall Street Journal first reported Wednesday.
That night, de Blasio made a phone call to Deputy Chief Kim Royster in the police department's press office about the arrest, the Journal reported. The precinct's commander sent Findlayter home with a desk appearance ticket by the precinct's commander - though de Blasio said he did not ask for him to be released.
"I made an inquiry with Chief Royster. She came back with an answer that the situation had been settled, and I thought that the precinct inspector handled it well, and it was his choice to make," he said.
He sought to emphasize he hadn't made any requests on the pastor's behalf.
"This is an unusual situation where a very prominent member of the clergy, obviously, was experiencing a pretty unusual situation," he said. "So I thought it was appropriate to make an inquiry, and I got a response, and that's the end of the story.
The mayor said he did not think his phone call would send police a message on how to behave in the future if a friend of his were arrested.
"Everything is a case by case basis. I have tremendous respect for the NYPD and they know it, and the precinct commanders will make their best judgments and that's their jobs," de Blasio said. "So I think it's absolutely appropriate if I make an inquiry to make an inquiry and get information, but I respect that precinct commanders are going to do as they see fit."